Porchlight Music Theatre’s Porchlight Young Professionals Associate Board (PYP) is proud to announce its summer fundraiser, the return of Broadway Open Mic, a live karaoke special event, Saturday, July 11 at 7 p.m. at Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St. Broadway Open Mic is hosted by Frankie Leo Bennett with Alex Newkirk on piano. Tickets are $35, (entry to event and one song ticket) or $30 (entry to event only), with VIP tickets available for $50 that include reserved seating and a song. All tickets include two complimentary welcome drinks and light bites, sponsored by Big Onion Hospitality and Uvae Kitchen and Wine Bar. During the event, attendees may also pay $5 to sing a song or to nominate a friend to sing or pay $10 to get out of singing when nominated to sing! All funds raised support Porchlight Music Theatre's 31st season. Broadway Open Mic is sponsored by Matthew Bowen, Nate Groonwald and Brian Hare, Jenny Poth, Lisa and Alex Villani-Gale and Gia and Quinn Wunar. Tickets are available at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org with sponsorship available by contacting to Alex@PorchlightMusicTheatre.org.
“It’s back! PYP’s inaugural special event returns, now in its third edition. All of us look forward to welcoming back the amazing voices and people who take to the stage to share a song or a few,” said Porchlight Young Professionals Chair Nate Groonwald. “It’s a fun atmosphere to meet with fellow music theatre lovers, to celebrate Porchlight and hear classics and hidden gems from Broadway and beyond performed by friends.”
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT YOUNG PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATE BOARD
The Porchlight Young Professionals (PYP) is an ensemble of young professionals who share a passion for advancing music theatre in Chicago as well as the innovative and transformative art happening at Porchlight.
The PYP inspires the next generation of Porchlight’s theatre patrons and serves as ambassadors through fundraising, event planning and committee involvement.
Current members include Nate Groonwald, chair; Gia Wunar, vice chair; Adam Zaucha, secretary; Lisa Villani-Gale, fundraising chair, Madison Wakefield, membership committee chair, Meggie Keiser, Claire Berman, Annie Mitran Brennan, Kellie Buffington, Matthew Bowen, Ben Jossi, Jonah Levi-Paesky, Jenny Poth, Kathryn Rosenbaum, Becca Sheehan, Yessenia Sosa, Kevin Tishka and Emily Werner.
ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE
Porchlight Music Theatre, now in its 31st season, is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.”
Porchlight's history over nearly three decades includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres.
Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form.
The company’s many honors include 178 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 50 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 15 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards and has been honored with seven awards in this tier to date including Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies (2019) and Best Production-Revue for Blues in the Night (2022).
Through the global pandemic, Porchlight emerged as one of Chicago’s leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim @ 90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. In 2021, Porchlight launched its annual summer series, Broadway in your Backyard, performing at parks and venues throughout the city.
The 31st Season is Sponsored By Brenda & Jim Grusecki.
Broadway Open Mic is sponsored by Matthew Bowen, Nate Groonwald, Jenny Poth, Lisa and Alex Villani-Gale and Gia and Quinn Wunar.
Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Actor’s Equity Foundation; Arlen and Elaine Cohen Rubin Charitable Fund or the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City; Chicago Free For All Fund; the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Mesirow Financial; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints; Dr. Scholl Foundation; the Shulman-Rochambeau Foundation; the Shubert Foundation; Uvae Kitchen & Wine Bar and Bukiety.
The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency. Porchlight Music Theatre wishes to thank members of the Matching Gift Corporate Program including Allstate; Baird Foundation; BDO USA; Google; Jackson National Life Insurance and The Saints.
